Flower And Snake II

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All Rise...

Judge Kerry Birmingham looks forward to the extra Google hits this review will receive thanks to his use of the words "BDSM," "incest," "genital shaving," and "clockwork dildo."

The Charge

What did he want to see before he died?

Opening Statement

It's a good idea to get this out of the way up front: is Flower &
Snake II pornography? The answer, hesitantly, is no. While elements of
it—the rampant BDSM, faux rape, masturbation, incest, degradation, and
even some light "water sports"—are tacitly pornographic, the
proceedings are set in a dramatic framework that is considerably weightier (and
more convoluted) than the pizza delivery boy looking for a "tip." In
this regard, Flower & Snake II can safely be called a relationship
drama; there's much hand-wringing and soliloquizing on the nature of art, love,
desire, and control. It has more in common with 9 ½ Weeks than
Debbie Does Dallas.

Facts of the Case

Aging and impotent art critic Takayoshi (Jo Shishido) finds himself in a
sexless but loving marriage with Shizuko (Aya Sugimoto, Flower &
Snake), a woman several decades his junior. When an artist's series of
bondage photographs makes Takayoshi question whether or not Shizuko is truly
fulfilled, he conspires to send her to Paris to evaluate a promising but
unproductive Japanese artist living there. The artist, Ryoosuke (Kenichi Endo,
Flower & Snake), is erratic and uninspired—until Shizuko enters
his life. He agrees to tackle his paintings in earnest, on the condition that
Shizuko serve as his model and muse. Thus begins a torrid affair that awakens
Shizuko's dormant sexuality and brings her marriage to a turning point.

The Evidence

It's been said that the only difference between porn and art is the lighting;
like the work of art-smut auteur Zalman King, Flower & Snake II makes
enough of a case for itself as a story of sexual liberation and forming genuine
connections rather than the (solely) exploitive venture that everything
else about the movie indicates.

This plot is laden with unsaid meaning and gravitas, but that doesn't
prevent it from being a mostly nonsensical affair. Opening with a startling (but
otherwise disconnected) rape by a delivery man, the film quickly moves into the
angst of elderly Takayoshi and his concern for his wife's happiness. Takayoshi's
somber dialogue with another codger of the Japanese art world over Photoshopped
pictures of Shizuko in bondage poses sums up the dichotomy of the whole film:
the dour juxtaposed with the shockingly graphic. It's not long after that that
Shizuko has a crucifixion rape fantasy (you did read that right) and Takayoshi
sets his plot in motion to finally see his wife both liberated and
satisfied.

Things get more twisted from there as an initially tentative Shizuko arrives
in Paris to find unstable artist Ryoosuke having a lover's spat with his
model/sister. Ryoosuke forces himself on Shizuko almost immediately. Their
warped romance plays out from there, swerving from reluctant infatuation to a
full-blown affair. Shizuko serves as the blocked painter's inspiration in his
attempt to attain, if not legitimacy as an artist, at least profitability as a
peddler of erotica. It's when Ryoosuke actually manages to complete a painting
that the plot becomes even more improbable, culminating in a secret sex auction
full of masked millionaires (who seem to be leftover extras from Eyes Wide Shut). The film culminates
in a lengthy, increasingly uncomfortable sequence in which Shizuko is humiliated
in front of a crowd of leering onlookers, ending with a series of dramatic
revelations. None of these turns are particularly surprising—what could
the conspicuously posed, body-length mirror Ryoosuke uses in his BDSM games be
hiding, I wonder?—but they bring the film back around to its central
conflicts as all the emotions and simmering conflicts are laid bare. Lest you
get bored by the tears, melodrama, and artful, anguished posing, there's even a
whipping scene thrown in for good measure. The sex throughout is graphic, but
eschews expected porn-isms like penetration and (let's put this one in quotes,
shall we?) "money shots" in favor of stark nudity and brutal,
unapologetic domination.

Whatever the case for Flower & Snake II's merits as a legitimate
piece of drama, there is an undeniable fearlessness to the creative personnel
involved. Sugimoto allows herself to be bound, contorted, and otherwise mauled
(to use the film's phrasing, "bound like a shrimp") in ways that, in
the behind-the-scenes footage, she admits only to finding
"uncomfortable." Likewise Endo, who appeared in the first film as a
different character, is called upon to portray an unhinged, dysfunctional
character (yes, I know I already said he was an artist). He portrays what is
arguably a strong misogynistic streak yet still maintains a basic core of
sympathy—which isn't easy when you're boffing your own sister and forcibly
restraining your models. It's a credit to both actors (and the game supporting
cast, whose gravity increases with each actor's age) that they take the material
as seriously as they do in the face of things like on-stage genital shaving and
forced urination. Any acknowledgement of how utterly ridiculous all of this is
remains off-camera.

Director Takashi Ishii, also returning from the first film, approaches the
material with an artist's eye. Whatever his individual opinions of the sex on
display in Flower & Snake II, it's unmistakably well shot. The sex
scenes and fantasies are gorgeously lit and shot as beautiful tableaus.
Individual shots and scenes are as ravishingly elaborate (and art-directed to
within an inch of their lives) as anything in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Zhang
Yimou's lavish period epics. The concept of Flower & Snake II is
inherently silly. Yet Ishii's command of the camera goes a long way towards our
considering the film as more than the sum of its (body) parts. If it's to be
classified as crass, exploitive pornography, it could at least be classified as
crass, exploitive pornography that's elegantly made. In a genre as questionable
as this, that's about as close to integrity as one could hope for.

Of the extras, the deleted scenes, mingled with behind-the-scenes footage,
are negligible. Footage from the film's premiere, entailing introductions from
the cast and crew immediately before the first screening, show that the Japanese
are a polite and professional people even while anxiously debuting a film which
features a clockwork dildo. The "digest version" promotional shorts,
played as one lump featurette, recap the film in digestible chunks and repeat a
lot of the same information in doing so. Finally, a small gallery of images
displays a few of the more artistic and lurid of Sugimoto's bondage poses.
Picture quality is often grainy and dark, though given the deliberateness of the
film's artistic design and direction, this is presumably intentional and not a
symptom of a bad transfer.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

It's difficult to recommend this film outright, but it would also be
critically callous to dismiss it in an equally unqualified manner. Those
"into that sort of thing" will probably appreciate the punishing
(literal and figurative) sex scenes and be bored by the almost as drawn-out
dramatic dialogues; anyone who would potentially be enrapt by what is some
involved and intricate melodrama are likely to be turned off by the
pan-fetishistic sexual excesses indulged in by the characters (and more academic
minds might have something to say about the film's treatment of women). An
appreciation of one or the other subject matter will probably make the
difference, and both sides would be right. Someone's bound to be bored or
repulsed somewhere in here.

Closing Statement

Too pornographic to be art, too arty to be pornography…if nothing else,
Flower & Snake II shows that as dubious as the American brand of
softly-lit softcore erotic dramas can be, the Japanese know a way to make it
even more screwed up.